Twilight: Edward And Jacob

Twilight: (noun) "the diffused light from the sky during the early evening or early morning when the sun is below the horizon and it's light is refracted by the earth's atmosphere". (the free online dictionary). Edward Cullen is one of the main characters in the bestselling series of books titled, Twilight. He is a relatively young vampire, 104 years old, who has the misfortune to fall in love with a human being. He lives with a family of vampires who have agreed to drink only animal blood, although they actually crave human blood. The book is set in Forks, Washington State, an actual place known for it's massive amount of rainfall.

Vampires have been the central characters of books since Dracula was written by Bram Stoker in the late 1800's. Until then, the typical vampire was believed to be a flesh eating, blood sucking monster that looked more like a ghoul than an aristocrat. In his book, Stoker portrayed Dracula as a gentleman, one who killed and drank the blood of his victims, but a gentleman, nonetheless. The book was set in Victorian times and Stoker wrote his vampire as a Count. Stoker's Dracula was inspired by a sadistic Romanian prince who lived in Transylvania in the 1400's named Vlad Dracula, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler. He was named for his father, Vlad Dracul ( Vlad the Devil) who was every bit as sadistic as he. In short, Vlad Dracula means "son of the devil". and he earned his name. Within a two year period, Vlad Dracula had impaled over 40,000 men, women, and children.

Jacob is another character in the book who falls in love with Bella. He is of the Quileute Indian tribe who were thought to be werewolves. They and the vampires have a peace treaty in order to protect each clan's secrets. Jacob and Edward are at odds over Bella and only later do they join forces to save her. The legend of the werewolf is fairly simple; a man, or more recently, a woman is bitten by a wolf and becomes a werewolf at the first full moon and can only be killed with a silver bullet. They have also been known as shape shifters and lycanthropes. In addition, there is a psychiatric disorder of the same name in which a person suffers from the delusion that he is a werewolf. The actual Quileute tribe does indeed live near the shores of La Push, Washington and have lived there for thousands of years. Legend has it that they were first wolves then they became men.

Since the first book came out in 2003, the tourist trade in Fork and La Push has been doing a booming business. Anyone who has anything to sell is trading on the Twilight name. There are shops and Twilight-themed restaurants in Fork and even La Push has enjoyed an upswing in tourism. The vampire legends have evolved since Bram Stoker first brought them to the forefront and if you believe the author of Twilight, they even seem like good neighbors to have.